UNIVERZITA PARDUBICE FAKULTA FILOZOFICKÁ BAKALÁŘSKÁ PRÁCE

Transkript

1 UNIVERZITA PARDUBICE FAKULTA FILOZOFICKÁ BAKALÁŘSKÁ PRÁCE 2009 Lucie HOLÁ

2 University of Pardubice Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Modernism in Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield Modernizmus v povídkách Katherine Mansfield Lucie Holá Bachelor Paper 2009

3 Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Ladislav Vít for all his constructive criticism, guidance and encouragement.

4 Prohlašuji: Tuto práci jsem vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré literární prameny a informace, které jsem v práci využila, jsou uvedeny v seznamu literatury. Byla jsem seznámena s tím, že se na moji práci vztahují práva a povinnosti vyplývající ze zákona č. 121/2000 Sb., autorský zákon, zejména se skutečností, že Univerzita Pardubice má právo na uzavření licenční smlouvy o užití této práce jako školního díla podle 60 odst. 1 autorského zákona, a s tím, že pokud dojde k užití této práce mnou nebo bude poskytnuta licence o užití jinému subjektu, je Universita Pardubice oprávněna ode mne požadovat přiměřený příspěvek na úhradu nákladů, které na vytvoření díla vynaložila, a to podle okolností až do jejich skutečné výše. Souhlasím s prezenčním zpřístupněním své práce v Univerzitní knihovně Univerzity Pardubice. V Pardubicích dne Lucie Holá

5 ABSTRAKT Tato práce se zabývá povídkovou tvorbou novozélandské spisovatelky Katherine Mansfield, která svým dílem významně přispěla k pestrosti modernistického avantgardního umění na počátku dvacátého století. Hlavním cílem této práce je analyzovat povídkou tvorbu Katherine Mansfield a stanovit experimentální a inovativní techniky, které používá ve své tvorbě. Tyto moderní metody jsou porovnány s dalšími autory krátké povídky, kteří ovlivnili podobu tohoto žánru v Británii na počátku dvacátého století (zejména A. P. Čechov, J. Joyce a tak dále). Dále je nastíněna situace v Británii na konci devatenáctého a počátku dvacátého století s důrazem na nový literární žánr modernismus a impresionismus, který byl jedním z literárním hnutí, jež bylo zahrnuto pod názvem modernismus. Na závěr jsou shrnuty inovativní techniky používané Katherine Mansfield a její podobnost s Čechovem, Joycem a Woolfovou. KLÍČOVÁ SLOVA Modernismus, impresionismus, krátká povídka, Katherine Mansfield, volná nepřímá řeč, symboly, barvy.

6 ABSTRACT This work deals with short stories of New Zealand female writer Katherine Mansfield who significantly contributed to the diversity of modernist avant-garde art at the beginning of the twentieth century. The main aim is to analyze the short stories of Katherine Mansfield and pinpoint the experimental and innovative techniques Mansfield uses. These findings are compared with other short story writers who influence the form of the short story writing in England at the beginning of the twentieth century (particularly A. P. Chekhov, J. Joyce, and so on). The history and development of short story is summarized. Furthermore, the outline of the situation in Britain at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century is presented with concentration on a new literary genre modernism and impressionism one of literary movements that belongs under the collective term modernism. At the end, the innovative techniques of Katherine Mansfield and comparison with Chekhov, Joyce and Woolf are summarized. KEY WORDS Modernism, impressionism, short story, Katherine Mansfield, free indirect discourse, symbols, colour images.

7 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION SHORT STORY The Outline of Short Story Short Story and Novel MODERNISM Historical Background The Origin of the Word Modernism and its Development Modernist Writing LITERARY IMPRESSIONISM KATHERINE MANSFIELD ( ) Life Typical Features of Katherine Mansfield s Short Stories NARRATIVE METHODS First Person Narrative Free Indirect Discourse PLOTLESS STORY MEDIAS-RES OPEN ENDING COLOUR IMAGES SYMBOLS GRAMMATICAL DEVICES Brackets Unfinished sentences Rhetorical Questions, Exclamations CONCLUSION RESUMÉ BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES Appendix 1 : FID in The Escape Appendix 2: Renoir Appendix 3: Cézanne Appendix 4: Monet... 51

8 1. INTRODUCTION This paper will, for the most part, concentrate on the short stories of New Zealand born female writer Katherine Mansfield who significantly contributed to the diversity of modernist avant-garde writing at the beginning of the twentieth century. The aim of this dissertation is to show that Ms. Mansfield s stories certainly belong to the collective works of the modernist writers of the period. The paper presents a summary of the innovative and experimental techniques used by Mansfield in order to compare and analyse, with a focus on the similarities and differences between the short stories of Katherine Mansfield, A.P. Chekhov, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Mansfield experimented and searched for new forms and methods to describe Reality. Moreover, her short stories are also closely associated with impressionist paintings. The initial section of the paper focuses on a brief summary of the history and development of the short story in England from the Anglo-Saxon period to the twentieth century. The short story is compared with another literary genre, the novel, and points out the differences between them. The historical background of the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century is also described and the focus is laid on the word modernism itself, along with its various definitions, and the main features of modernist writing are described. The final chapter of this section concentrates on literary Impressionism, its development, main techniques and the significance of Katherine Mansfield s short story writing. The main aim of the second section of the paper is to analyse Katherine Mansfield s short stories with intention to pinpoint and map the nature of her innovative and experimental techniques. Consequently, these techniques will be compared with selected works of other famous modernist writers such as Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Katherine Mansfield pioneered a minimalist technique. Most of her short stories are plotless, in other words, she does not focus on the plot of the stories in minutiae, which was one of the modernist techniques. The main purpose of this innovative method was to provoke disturbing sensations in the reader. Consequently, her stories 1

9 contain open-ending and in medias-res in order to make the reader more involved in the story itself and to form their own images, ideas, and thoughts. Another feature under discussion is the narrative method. The most typical types of narrative in Katherine Mansfield s stories are those related to the first and third person. The main function of the narrator in her stories is not only to describe the setting but more importantly to formulate the mental activity of individual characters, to create images in the reader, and to present the moment of illumination of the characters and their stream-of-consciousness. The paper will distinguish the role of the narrator and then express the impact thereof. Colour occurs throughout Mansfield s fiction and creates a vivacious setting for the action of her stories. Moreover, these colours are used in a way that helps the reader to perceive the characters as well as their mental state or the prevailing atmosphere. Mansfield s use of colours is to be compared with the short story Kew Gardens and The Waves by Virginia Woolf. The final chapters discuss the usage of symbols in Mansfield s short stories and various grammatical devices, such as brackets, unfinished sentences and so on. 2

10 2. SHORT STORY 2.1 The Outline of Short Story In the view of H.S. Canby, The history of the short story in English is the history of changing fashions in the writing of the short tale. (1909, 347) Charles May adds that the tradition of short stories or short narratives can be traced back to the period of myths, spoken folklore, oral tales and so on (2002, 1-2).The short story, in other words short tale or short narrative, was influenced by the Roman Church: to be more exact by religious narratives, in the Anglo-Saxon period. A new type of short story fabliau (folktale) and exemplum (fable) - came from France during the middle ages. In the fourteenth century, the first short story writers were considered to be Giovanni Boccaccio and Geoffrey Chaucer whose books Decameron and Canterbury Tales respectively, consisted of individual short stories (Canby, 1909, 347). Furthermore, H.S. Canby adds on the account of Chaucer that he became the first Englishman to lift the short-story kind above the reproach of triviality. (1909, 347) According to H.S. Canby, although the popularity of the short narrative considerably declined in England at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Italian Renaissance, at the same time, not only introduced a new literary genre a novella, a new type of short story that resembled religious stories, but also a new way of life typical of the South (1909, ). The typical features of this Renaissance type of short story were erudition, discourse upon various subjects quite foreign to the plot, a highly rhetorical style. (Canby, 1909, 108) At the beginning of the eighteenth century, short stories were published in two prominent magazines, The Tatler (1709) and The Spectator ( ). Although Daniel Defoe was, first and foremost a novelist, he also wrote short stories which were not of high-quality but they were interesting. For example, The History and Reality of Apparitions, A System of Magic, A Journal of the Plague Year and The Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell (Canby, 1909, ). Furthermore, H.S Canby points out that the only short stories from the middle of the eighteenth century to the end of twentieth century, which were worth reading, were exemplary tales (containing plot and minor characters) and oriental stories (which were moral and reflective) and whose main exponent was Dr. Johnson (1909, 189). Charles May adds that Horace Walpole s short story The Castle of Otranto, published in 1765, combined the old 3

11 romance and the new realism and became a pillar for nineteenth century short story writing (2002, 23-34). H.S. Canby expresses a similar view concerning the end of the eighteenth century: The short story, however, cannot be said to do more than indicate the approach of romanticism. (1909, 201) The modern short story is believed to have begun in America at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the main work is considered to be Sketchbook by Washington Irving (May, 2002, 6). English short stories, unlike the American short story, never stand out in the form. In the view of O Connor and other short story writers and critics, the short story seems to thrive best in a fragmented society. (May, 2002, 13) Wendell Harris adds that the fragmentation did not begin in England until the end of the nineteenth century (circa 1880) and the period from 1890s onwards was called the Golden Age of the English short story (May, 2002, 13-14). In other words, the end of the nineteenth century can be regarded as the beginning of modernist short story writing in England. Conversely, R.L. Stevenson is known as the first British short story writer. Stevenson was a representative of the romance form ; he concentrated on technique and form rather than on the content of the story. According to Lionel Stevenson and Walter Allen, the publication of Stevenson s A Lodging for the Night in 1878 marks the beginning of the modernist short story in England. E.M. Albright adds that The short story in its modern form began in the short, simple narrative which showed more or less conscious selection of significant details, with limitation of time, place, and number of characters, resulting in the unity that is a necessary accompaniment of simplicity of style and omission and compression. (1908, 12) Clare Hanson presents another view concerning the modernist short story: The modernist short story grew out of the psychological sketch of the 1890s. [ ] it is more properly called a type of short fiction for one of its leading characteristics is a rejection of the story in the accepted sense. Modernist short fiction writers distrusted the well-wrought tale for a variety of reasons. Most importantly they argued that the pleasing shape and coherence of the traditional short story represented a falsification of the discrete and heterogeneous nature of experience. (Kimber, 38) The British modern story began with, and was influenced, by Chekhov (May, 2002, 14-17) who was criticized by some that his stories consist of lack of incident and avoidance of denouement (May, 2002, 51) Constance Garnett argues and adds that one of the primary contributions Chekhov makes to the short story: the expression of a 4

12 complex inner state by presenting selected concrete details rather than by developing either a parabolic form or by depicting the mind of the character. (May, 2002, 53) In the view of Childs, the content of the English modernist short story was that of sexuality, freed from overbearing Victorian morality (2000, 92). Moreover, Chekhov introduced snappy ending, naturalness, plotlessness into the short story, also a focus on inner reality and allowing objective detail to communicate complex states of feeling. (May, 2002, 51-53) Katherine Mansfield was heavily influenced by these techniques - it is said that she plagiarized one of his stories called Sleepyhead (Tomalin, 1988, 72). Another author who followed in Chekhovian style was James Joyce. The most important contribution he made to the innovative and experimental techniques of modernism was the introduction of the epiphany, the meaning of which was first described in The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (May, 2002, 57). In the view of Margaret Drabble, epiphany means the sudden revelation of the whatness of a thing, the moment in which the soul of the commonest object seems to us radiant. (2006, 332) Charles May points out that by the 1950 s short stories had more or less a lyrical nature (impression of perfection), poetic style and the authors tried to separate them from formula plots (2002, 115). In Herschel Brickell s view, the reason why the appearance of good short stories increased after the 1950 s, was due to the new surge of creative writing class in colleges and universities. (May, 2002, 115) The short story as a literary genre has considerably developed throughout the centuries but the main changes underwent at the end of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century. 2.2 Short Story and Novel Although the development and outline of the history of the short story in England is described above, it is worth summarizing the main features of the short story and pinpointing the difference between the short story and the novel. Charles May points out that studies in anthropology suggest that brief episodic narratives, which constitute the basis of the short story, are primary (2002, 1) E.M. Albright emphasizes that the short story is not a cut-down novel, an expanded anecdote or a narrative tale. Even though novel and short story have some common features, it is worth pointing out their differences. 5

13 The aim of the novel is to represent a large period or whole life or lives of characters. On the other hand, the short story represents only fragments of such a period or character s life. The short story is suggestive, it presents, in vigorous, compressed, suggestive ways, a simplification and idealization of a particular stage of life. The result of this is a simpler and more clever plot, whereas the novel is complete, describes a sequence of events connected to live histories of the main characters (1908, 5-10). B.M. Éjxenbaum, as well as E.M. Albright, makes the distinction between novel and short story and adds the short story is a fundamental, elementary (which does not mean primitive) form. (May, 2002, 2) 6

14 3. MODERNISM 3.1 Historical Background To define what modernism means, when it begun and ended, and where its roots lie is a rather complicated task. Like other literary movements it is not clearly stated when a particular period begins or ends. According to Peter Childs, modernism can be regarded as a timebound concept, that is modernism started circa 1890 and ended in about 1930, or a timeless concept (including works of Sterne, Donne, Villon, and Ronsard) (2000, 2). The starting point of modernism is the crisis of belief that pervades twentieth century western culture: loss of faith, experience or fragmentation and disintegration, and the shattering of cultural symbols and norms. (Childs, 2000, 57) Moreover, modernism was a reaction to changes such as industrialization, development of technology, migration of people from country to cities, new psychological ideas, as well as the attitude toward the Great War and the Second World War at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries (Childs, 2000, 20-21). Furthermore, Marxists believed that the loss of communal identity was one of the reasons responsible for ideological, political and life changes leading to modernism (Childs, 2000, 40). 3.2 The Origin of the Word Modernism and its Development The word modern- comes from the Latin modo which means current. This word is not only connected with modernism as such, but it has a wider range of definitions because critics avoid providing one. Although the critic David Ayers believes that the touchstone of modernist writing is James Joyce s Ulysses and it can only be read as modernist (Childs, 2000, 5), Drabble and Childs provide us with their definitions of modernism. On one hand, Drabble sees modernism as a literary movement or a collective term, that was given throughout Europe, to movements, schools in literature, art, and music from the end of the nineteenth century to the start of the Second World War (2000, 698). On the other hand, Childs sees modernism as a period, style, genre or combination thereof. 7

15 Although modernism is used to describe twentieth century writing, a modern period in literature is believed to have begun in the sixteenth century, and modern English, even earlier, in the Middle Ages. In general, modernism was associated with the avant-garde movement during the Second World War and only from the 1960s was the term modernist used to describe authors and a characteristic literary movement (2000, 12-13). Moreover, unlike romanticism, modernism was not a single movement but consisted of a number of movements. Each of them depicted reality in a different way, such as impressionism, post-impressionism, expressionism, cubism, symbolism, imagism, vorticism, Dadaism, futurism and surrealism. Furthermore, some critics believed that modernism was only a collective term for authors who belong to the literary movements mentioned above (Childs, 2000, 13-15). Modernist was used in the sixteenth century to describe a modern person and later in the eighteenth century it was associated with a follower of modern ways and supporter of modern literature. Modernism was also used at the end of the eighteenth century to refer to trends characteristic of modern times and in the nineteenth century it was associated with modern opinions, styles or expressions. Only in the 1960 s was the term modernist used to describe a generation of writers and also a literary phase as opposed to contemporary writers of the moment. The roots of modernism are believed to be in the works of French authors Charles Baudelaire and Gustave Flaubert who described modernity as the fashionable, fleeting and contingent, and or in the works of fin-de-siècle writers (Childs, 2000, 14-16). 3.3 Modernist Writing Modernist writing is usually non-chronological by means of experiments in the representation of time, such as sudden jumps, juxtapositions (wherein various moments of time are presented with an effect of simultaneity) or the exploration of duration (making a large episode take place within a small piece of text and vice versa). In other words, Modernism expressed time moving in arcs, flashbacks, jumps, repetitions and, above all, subjective leaps and swerves. Space was compressed, oppressive, threatening and subjectively perceived. (Childs, 2000, 74) Modernist writers move from one level of narration to another one without warning, mis-en-abyme (one story inside another 8

16 story), emphasis on characters consciousness, perception and stream of consciousness, open-endings, abrupt beginnings, the narrative gap, the ellipsis and ambiguity. There are several types of narrators one can find in modernist writings: third person narrative, unreliable first person narrative, and multiple or shifting narrators (Drabble, 2000, 698). Childs adds other typical features such as experimentation, complexity, formalism, the attempt to create a tradition of the new, aesthetics, spatial or rhythmic rather than chronological form, and writer s interest in the character s mind. He also includes the rejection of Victorian values such as feminism, sexual issues (for example bisexuality and homosexuality), focus on city life and the upper class, fear of technology and industrialization, and stylistic innovations (Childs, 2000, 15-20). In addition, modernist poetry followed very similar patterns. 9

17 4. LITERARY IMPRESSIONISM As mentioned above, the beginning of the twentieth century was the era of experimentation and the search for new forms and methods in order to describe the world. Impressionism was one of the literary movements dominating literature. The first recorded use of the term literary impressionism is found in Brunétière s article on Daudet written in 1879, where he describes literary impressionism as a stylistic development of Naturalism, incorporating the main principles of impressionism in painting (Gunsteren, 1990, 38). Jesse Matz argues that Louis Leroy already coined the term in 1872 in his satirical review of Monet s Impression: Soleil Levant (2001, 12). In the view of Julia Van Gunsteren: The literary impressionist, like the impressionists in painting, focused on perception. They attempted to formulate reality by breaking it into momentary fragments, selected intuitively and subjectively. They relied on sensory (ap)perceptions used clusters of images and rendered their emotions in a slice of life picture of some everyday, ordinary experience. Their solipsistic visions of apparently directly perceived moments were presented in an atmospheric Stimmung, which surrounds events, characters and the narrator. This fragmentary, momentary, evocative reality is or becomes reality for the Literary Impressionist. (Gunsteren, 1990, 7 8) In painting, Impressionism was a reaction against the orthodox realism [ ], and in fiction it was a reaction against the fact-mongering of the Naturalists. (Gunsteren, 16-17) Since the methods of impressionist painting were transferred into language, many stylistic characteristics were summarised, such as the painterly imperfect, broken sentences, lack of logical syntax, accumulation of adjectives and a great number of synonyms (Gunsteren, 38). A similar view about impressionism was expressed by Jesse Matz: The Impressionisms of painting and literature share an interest in subjective perception. This shift from object to subject, with is emphasis on point of view, [ ] Out were plot, schema, and other forms of rationalizing conceptual knowledge; freedom, informality, and emphasis on the experience of the senses enabled the artist to make art more perfectly reflect lived experience. [ ] the writer s impression, which makes something slight and sketchy stand for some larger experience, and blends with other impressions to produce a whole more evocative than any more formal set or series of representational details. (2001, 45) General belief is that impressionist fiction expressing life ought to be evocative and dramatic, limit exposition and narratorial intrusion, and present the sensory life of 10

18 characters. It focuses on isolated events from character s lives, rather than on extensive coordinated events. Characters are presented in dialogue rather than in lengthy descriptions and the emphasis is placed on their minds. Furthermore, the major intention of literary impressionism is to present a picture of life itself, particularly to make the reader aware of the story described. As Mansfield s comments often suggest, she wished to communicate the basic impressions of life that a character could receive in a particular place, during a limited period of time (Gunsteren, 1990, 18-19). A narrative method consistent with the idea and themes of literary impressionism is a method whereby a narrator pretends to be the character, or a character who serves as a narrator, or a number of different characters who see reality in different terms. Another method is the uncertain or unreliable narration, in which the narrator attempts to discover the truth about his own experience. A significant method is the device of parallax, the method of presenting an event or scene as perceived by multiple characters or narrators. A literary impressionist wishes to create a coherent narrative based on fragmentary episodes (Gunsteren, 2000, 19 21). Although Gunsteren mentions that literary impressionism is not the only impulse noticeable in Mansfield s short stories and that her work touches on a range of literary movements such as naturalism, realism, symbolism and modernism, she is still considered chiefly an impressionist writer (2000, 27-28). Typical features of Mansfield s short stories are described in chapter

19 5. KATHERINE MANSFIELD ( ) Although Claire Tomalin in her biography described Katherine Mansfield as the true modernist who changed the rules for the English-language short story (1988, 5), current critics of modernism do not consider Mansfield as a modernist writer. However, during her time she was highly discussed for her innovative and experimental techniques and T.S. Eliot selected her short story Bliss as an illustration of modernist techniques (Kimber, 117). Furthermore, Kaplan claims that central to Mansfield s development as a modernist writer is her deconstruction of traditional conventions of fiction which restrict the roles of women. (Kimber, 118) Lorna Sage adds that for Mansfield, the editing out of subject matter evolves into, short stories [ ] (as) intensely crafted and evocative objects on the page, sometimes with nearly no plot at all in the conventional sense. (Kimber, 116) Her life and the typical features of her short stories are discussed in this chapter. 5.1 Life Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to an upper-class family. Mansfield was educated both in New Zealand and England. She was interested in writing from an early age. Her short stories were published in journals such as New Age, Rhythm, and Blue Review. Following her lesbian escapades with her friends and a subsequent miscarriage she married the literary critic and editor John Middleton Murry. Furthermore, Mansfield became a member of the Bloomsbury Group that was founded by her friend Virginia Woolf. On finding out that she had tuberculosis, she lived out of England and travelled around Europe, mainly France, Italy, and Switzerland. She died in Fountainbleu near Paris in 1923 aged just Typical Features of Katherine Mansfield s Short Stories Although Mansfield s writing was considered a feminist act in the 1920 s, her stories contain the most prominent features of modernism. Childs writes that Mansfield was the most important modernist author who wrote only short stories. (2000, 94) To begin, open-ending and in medias-rés are typical for all her short stories. For example, a large number of stories start with a conjunction. The conjunction at the beginning of the story signalled that something must have happened previously, such as 12

20 the introduction of characters or description of setting and/or characters. H.E. Bates reflects how, as in great drawing, so in a great short story: it is the lines that are left out that are of paramount importance. Not that this is all; it is knowing what lines to leave out that is of the greatest importance, too. (Kimber, 116) Secondly, Mansfield predominantly uses third and first person narration. The free indirect speech evokes the impression, in the reader, of access to a character s thoughts and leaves also a place for irony, ambiguity and alternative meaning. In the view of Rhoda Nathan One of Mansfield s great narrative gifts is her ability to set a tone, plunge the reader into the heart of the event, and at the same time imply that the action has been building for a great while [ ]. (Kimber, 124) Furthermore, Kimber adds that the strength was in Mansfield s becoming a fictional character and the accuracy in depiction character s inner mind and outlining their physical attributes ( ). In addition, Mansfield uses a wide range of grammatical devices to develop her creativity such as rhetorical questions, exclamations, repetition, unexpected shift in syntax signalled by the dash, unfinished sentences (signalled in this way - [ ][and] (Kimber, 122). The suppression of words necessary to the full form of a construction (ellipsis) should also make the reader supply the missing thoughts of the characters and was one of the main features of Katherine Mansfield s writing. Moreover, she uses metaphors, and symbols in forms such as fruit, trees, flowers, and objects to help the reader supply the missing thoughts. Finally, her stories are very colourful; she uses different colours and their shades to help the reader to perceive the character s thoughts (Childs, 2000, 167). Kathleen Wheeler expressed a similar view, Like impressionist paintings, Mansfield s stories seem designed explicitly to draw the reader s attention to the act of perception itself, not in a general, but in a specific sense. (Kimber, 134) On the whole, Mansfield s prose style suits the content of the story and these details add up to one of the richest, most tightly structured and intricately arranged prose styles in twentieth-century writing. (Childs, 2000, ) Furthermore, V.S. Pritchett points out that Other writers studied her approvingly for economy, the boldness of her comic gift, her speed, and her dramatic changes of the point of interest, her power to dissolve and reassemble a character and situation by a few lines. (Tomalin, 1988, 241) 13

21 6. NARRATIVE METHODS In connection with narratives methods Gunsteren points out that Mansfield s narrative methods are a good deal more complex than has generally been assumed [ ] Her perception of the surrounding world, the stress on form, structure, empathy and atmosphere in a writer s subjective vision with an expressive narrator attempt to create a fictional illusion. There is the emotive correlative between images, narrator and character, in awareness in an epiphany, whereby one of her major themes, the disparity between illusion and reality, is revealed. (1990, 8) Additionally, she stresses the importance of the narrator s presence in or absence from the text. She goes on and adds the identity of the narrator, his participation, his perceptibility, and the choices that are implied, all give the text its specific character. (Gunsteren, 1990, ) As mentioned in section 5.2, the first and third person narratives are preferred by Katherine Mansfield. The following chapters concentrate on the explanation of her narrative techniques, namely the first person narrative, and free indirect discourse. Each method is illustrated by an example and than compared with short stories by James Joyce and A.P. Chekhov. 6.1 First Person Narrative As mentioned above in the description of techniques used by Katherine Mansfield, first person narration represents one of the typical features of her short story writing. Based on the reading of her short stories, it can be determined that many of her stories are written in the first person narrative. For example, four out of the thirteen stories collected in a book of short stories, In a German Pension, published in 1911 (some of the stories also appeared in The New Age magazine), are written in the first person narrative. To be exact The Luft Bad, Germans at Meat, The Baron, The Sister of the Baroness and Frau Fisher. The remainder are written in the third person narrative. Other stories which were written in the first person narrative are The Canary, Poison, Late at Night, An Indiscreet Journey and so on. The technique of first person narrative is discussed and illustrated in Mansfield s short stories The Luft Bad and The Baron. Then they are compared with the short story Araby written by James Joyce. 14

22 In the view of Ruth Parkin-Gounelas the similarity of the story The Luft Bad with the other ones, is in its mixed irony, both self- and other-directed and differs from them in that the narrator is the one with the layers of superfluous flesh. (501) The short story The Luft Bad is not only narrated in the first person but it also has an all-female cast, which was a rather unusual feature for Mansfield s stories. The story is set in a women s spa bath and a new member of this club, who regards herself as a débutante, is the narrator of this story. Katherine Mansfield herself may have been the narrator of this story (she, too, went to Bad Wörishofen when she found out about her pregnancy and stayed after her miscarriage) (Tomalin, 1988, 69-70). The name of the narrator, however, is not mentioned and she stays anonymous throughout the whole story. The anonymity is highly visible in all four stories. The reader follows signals or clues towards the narrator s identity. The story The Baron is set in a hotel in Germany. The narrator of this story is also anonymous. The reader can deduce from the dialogue and the protagonists inner thoughts that the narrator is a woman, who is staying at the hotel, and she is very likely to be English: All eyes were suddenly turned upon me. I felt I was bearing the burden of the nation s preposterous breakfast I who drank a cup of coffee while buttoning my blouse in the morning. (Mansfield, 2006, 581) In The Luft Bad, Mansfield alters singular and plural narrator ( I and we ), which signals the ambivalence about her position in relation to a specifically feminine discourse and code of practice (Parkin-Gounelas, 502). On the first day I was conscious of my legs, and went back into my cell three times to look at my watch, but when a woman with whom I had played chess for three weeks cut me dead, I took heart and joined a circle. [ ] We lay curled on the ground while a Hungarian lady of immense proportions told us what a beautiful tomb she had bought for her second husband. (Mansfield, 2006, 621) In contrast, the story The Baron is primarily narrated in the first person singular. For example, I look down. It was the First of the Barons with the black bag and an umbrella. Was I mad? Was I sane? He was Asking ME to share the latter. But I was exceedingly nice, a trifle diffident, appropriately reverential. (Mansfield, 2006, 587) In The Luft Bad the narrator expresses her first impressions about the club; she describes the setting and the atmosphere. The narrator has the same function in the short story The Baron. 15

23 Using we Mansfield wanted to refer to all the women at the club and show their stereotypical thinking and their perception of reality. In comparison, the first person singular only refers to the débutante who sees the club from her perspective. Due to the conversation the narrator (the débutante) has with the other bathers, she comes to the conclusion that such a club is quite ridiculous and that she has become one of them. The indication which leads the reader to this conclusion is also the central symbol of this story and will be discussed in more detail in chapter 11. Another great modernist writer James Joyce uses, in a number of his works collected in a book of short stories Dubliners, the technique of the first person narrative, both singular and plural. For example, the short story Araby is narrated in the first person and the narrator s name and identity are hidden, as in Katherine Mansfield s stories which are narrated in the first person. The reader is only aware of the sex of the central character prior to his confession of love for his friend s sister, that is, the narrator is a male character. The reader is also aware of the narrator s (character s) family relations. He is the nephew of a landlord. In the introductory paragraphs, James Joyce uses we to describe the setting and the typical daily activities of the main character (narrator) and his friends, who inform the reader about death of one of the tenants (priest) who lived in a flat whose back windows faced the flat of the narrator s love. Joyce uses the first person singular to describe fragments out of life from the perspective of the main character. The narrator tells his love story for the sister of one of his friends. He watches her from the window in a room where the priest died and even if he does not see her, he imagines how she looks that day. One day she starts talking to him. She asked him if he is going to Araby. The reason why he wants his aunt and uncle to let him go to this oriental bazaar is that his love likes these places. The narrator s monologue is interrupted by short passages of direct discourse, for example It s well for you, she said. (Joyce, 1977, 32) and indirect discourse, for example She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent. (Joyce, 1977, 32) The first person narrative, in both Mansfield s and Joyce s short stories, represents a reliable source of information of the characters fragmented lives. This reliability brings the reader closer to the character and the reader becomes involved in 16

24 the story itself. He/she lives the life of the character; experiences their joy, sadness, tension and so on. 6.2 Free Indirect Discourse According to Julia Van Gunsteren free indirect discourse (FID) represents a compromise between direct and indirect discourse. In contrast with direct discourse, FID does not use quotation-marks that set FID from the narration. The most important feature of FID is impressionist unreliability illustrating Mansfield s inner contradiction between epiphany and impersonality. Moreover, FID functions as a vehicle of epiphany, irony, bi- and polyvocality, and stream-of-consciousness which in Drabble s view is a special literary method for representing this psychological principle in unpunctuated or fragmentary forms of interior monologue. (2000, 975) However, stream-ofconsciousness tends towards the first person narrative, while FID represents one subgroup of the third person narrative. The narrator in FID is not an external character but is hidden behind the leading character. FID represents the inner thoughts and feelings of such a character. Furthermore, FID expresses purely judgmental thoughts, without any inquit-phrase such as she thought. The result of this narrative method is continuing bivocal, ambiguous, distorted judgements (2000, ). Mansfield was not consistent in the use of FID in her short story writing. For example, in stories The Child-Who-Was-Tired and Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding which were published in 1910, there is no FID, but in A Birthday published in 1911, FID is used to express the hallucinations and dreams of the main character. In The Woman at the Store, also published in 1911, there is no FID (2000, 109). A Dill Pickle and The Fly are used as illustration of Mansfield s FID technique. In these two stories the narrator seems to represent him/herself as the character of the boss ( The Fly ) and Vera ( A Dill Pickle ), the main characters, and the reader experiences their deepest thoughts, doubts, dreams and so on. A Dill Pickle is a story about an accidental meeting of the main character Vera and her former boyfriend. They meet in a café where they talk about their life and encounters over the past six years. Vera s friend talks about his journeys, all those they dreamed of when they were a couple, and the fact that he has now realised them. The 17

25 reader learns from Vera s flashbacks about their relationship, and they subsequently affect the reader s opinion about her friend. The first example of FID is found in the introduction of the story. Although FID is not formally marked here, it resembles direct discourse (DD), with the exception of not using quotation marks. Incredible! He didn t know her! She smiled, [ ]. (Mansfield, 2006, 132) Vera s inner monologue expresses her surprise, doubt, and possibly a joy that her friend did not recognise her. However, he did indeed recognise her, and invited her to have coffee with him. But she was thinking how well she remembered that trick of his the trick of interrupting her and of how it used to exasperate her six years ago. She used to feel then as though he, quite suddenly, in the middle of what she was saying, put his hand over her lips, turned from her, attended to something different, and then took his hand away, and with just the same slightly too broad smile, gave her his attention again Now we are ready. That is settled. (Mansfield, 2006, ) FID is evident by the word thinking (due to these words of perception, the reader becomes aware of the fact that Mansfield uses FID; many of her FIDs are hidden and not marked) and this imparts Vera s feelings and memory of her friend s domineering nature. It presents a synopsis of Vera s opinion about her friend and it is also used to reinforce the feeling of dislike in the reader. In other words, her friend is an oppressor who had to be right on every occasion, now and previously. Yes, it had been a wonderful afternoon, full of geranium and marigold and verbena, and warm sunshine. (Mansfield, 2006, 133) FID represents only a snatch of Vera s inner monologue and it seems to answer the question asked by her friend. Vera does not answer it aloud, but in her thoughts she does, and the reader emerges in Kew on that particular date. The reader experiences the essence of the beautiful day, such as the fragrance of flowers, but at the same time the boyfriend s spoiling of the day by his behaviour and attitude toward other people. He was certainly far better looking now than he had been then. He had lost all that dreamy vagueness and indecision. Now he had the air of a man who has found his place in life, and fills it with a confidence and an assurance which was, to say the least, impressive. He must have made money, too. His clothes were admirable, and at that moment he pulled a Russian cigarette case out of his pocket. (Mansfield, 2006, 134) Vera s thoughts linger around her friend s looks and how he has changed. The reader gets the impression that her friend is more mature, elegant, and handsome. This 18

26 description is more favourable than Vera s initial thoughts about his selfish behaviour. FID expresses Vera s doubts about her unfavourable opinion about him. At the same time, the reader is deceived by this picture. And she seemed at that moment to be sitting on the grass beside the mysterious Black Sea, black as velvet, and rippling against the banks in silent, velvet waves. She saw the carriage drawn up to one side of the road, and the little group on the grass, their faces and hands white in the moonlight She saw the pale dress of the woman outspread and her folded parasol, lying on the grass like a huge pearl crochet hook. Apart from them, with his supper in a cloth on his knees, sat the coachman. Have a dill pickle, said he, and although she was not certain what a dill pickle was, she saw the greenish glass jar with a red chilli like a parrot s beak glimmering through. She sucked in her cheeks; the dill pickle was terribly sour (Mansfield, 2006, 135) Vera uses her deepest thoughts to transport herself to Russia, and imagines that she is sitting by the Black Sea; she feels the atmosphere and narrates what would have happened if she really had gone to this place. Based on Vera s emotions and her narrative, the reader is conveyed there, too. Was there just a hint of mockery in his voice or was it her fancy? She could not be sure. (Mansfield, 2006, 136) Vera again doubts whether her friend just makes fun of her because she did not travel abroad and did not experience and learn new things like him, or that he is being ironic. Ah, God! What had she done! How had she dared to throw away her happiness like this. This was the only man who had ever understood her. Was it too late? Could it be too late? She was that glove that he held in his fingers (Mansfield, 2006, 137) The reader learns that Vera s mind is puzzled. On his holding of her glove, she becomes the glove. Consequently, Vera feels the passion and love that she did when they were a couple. Vera is not sure whether or not it was a mistake to break up with him. Her friend latterly wakes her up from her sweet dream by describing them as egoists and self-engrossed during their relationship. The Fly is a story about suffering and overcoming the death of a beloved son killed in The Great War. The minor character is Mr. Woodifield, whose family keeps him at home like a prisoner, and is allowed to go out to town only once a week where he visits the boss, the main character, whose deepest thoughts are central to FID in this story. The readers do not understand the full horror of the story until the boss sadistically tortures and kills a fly that has landed in his ink pot (Soule). 19

27 From the boss s inner monologue we learn about the loss of his son: Other men perhaps might recover, might live their loss down, but not he. How was it possible? His boy was an only son [ ] How on earth could he have slaved, denied himself, kept going all those years without the promise for ever before him of the boy s stepping into his shoes and carrying on where he left off? (Mansfield, 2006, ) The boss remembers his son s popularity. It concentrates on the irony of the son s death and evokes the empathy of the reader, by establishing a bond of familiarity between the boss and the reader. No wonder, he had taken to it marvellously. As to his popularity with the staff, every man jack of them down to old Macey couldn t make enough of the boy. And he wasn t in the least spoilt. No, he was just his bright natural self, with the right word for everybody, with that boyish look and his habit of saying, simply splendid! (Mansfield, 2006, 347) The boss s inner thoughts bring us back to the present. He looks at his son s photograph and thinks that there is something wrong with it; his son does not look as he remembers him. This fact may be considered the first clue in the boss s struggle to forget his son s death. Six years ago, six years How quickly time passed! It might have happened yesterday. The boss took his hands from his face; he was puzzled. Something seemed to be wrong with him. He wasn t feeling as he wanted to feel. He decided to get up and have a look at the boy s photograph. But it wasn t a favourite photograph of his; the expression was unnatural. It was cold, even stern-looking. The boy had never looked like that. (Mansfield, 2006, 347) What would it make of that? What indeed! (Mansfield, 2006, 348) The boss wonders what the fly would do if he dropped some more ink onto its wings. The reader finds his answer to this question in That was the way to tackle things; that was the right spirit. Never say die; it was only question of (Mansfield, 2006, 348) where FID represents a reaction against his own process of survival in life. The boss and the fly want to be ready for life again. On seeing the fly struggle and consequently fight for its life, the boss comes to conclusion that he lives like the struggling fly. He, too, is fighting for his life, one without being haunted by the memory of his beloved son. The following FID, What was it? It was For the life of him he could not remember. (Mansfield, 2006, 348), evokes the feeling that the boss finally manages to forget his beloved son. FID in A Dill Pickle exposes Vera s doubts as to whether she made the right decision to break up with her boyfriend. Although he seems to be a new, improved man, 20

28 her memories and inner thoughts bring her back to the time when they were dating, and she remembers all the things she hated about him. On the other hand, in The Fly FID serves to reveal the boss s deepest and most confused emotions connected to the death of his beloved son. Furthermore, FID serves, in both stories, as a vehicle for stream-ofconsciousness, irony, and in The Fly as an unreliable declaration of the boss s thoughts. The narrator s identification with the main characters, Vera and the boss, inevitably affects the reader s reaction towards their thoughts, doubts and emotions. A most interesting feature is that the narrator tells the story and is present at the boss s thoughts which mean that FID only represents small segments in the story. As was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, FID in comparison with DD, eliminates all quotation marks so it is fairly difficult to distinguish this particular feature. Another feature that distinguishes FID from DD, or the narrator s inputs, is the use of formal markers such as thinking, wondering, and so on. A Dill Pickle and The Fly are examples of FID representing only shorter inner thoughts, which is a more typical feature of Mansfield s writing. The passage, in appendix 1, from the short story The Escape represents a longer example of FID, which is a considerably rare technique in Mansfield s short story writing. FID gives us the woman s thoughts, perceptions and interpretations, and it simultaneously describes the woman and her husband s departure from the hotel. The function of FID expresses a character s troubled mind, to narrate a fictional event and to render the woman s blurred, unreliable perception of her husband (Gunsteren, 2000, ). Although the technique of FID is unique to a large number of Katherine Mansfield s short stories, James Joyce uses a very similar technique named interior monologue. This technique expands the unspoken thoughts and memories of the main character (Drabble, 2000, ). 21

29 7. PLOTLESS STORY In order to understand the meaning of plotlessness, the definition of plot in traditional (for example romantic, realistic, classical and so on) short-stories and novels has to be ascertained. In the view of E.M. Albright, plot is the management of the continuous line of action underlying the whole progress of the story. It concerns the sequence of events. (1908, 48) Plot is necessary to increase the intensity towards an effective climax. Furthermore, incidents and events must be rearranged in such a way as to bring out the author s meaning most effectively. (Albright, 1908, 48) In its broadest sense, plot is a plan essential to every story. Complexity of plot is extremely undesirable for the short story. According to Albright, the short story must be dominated by a single purpose of meaning, and must produce strict unity of impression and the singleness of plot is essential (1908, 48-52). Moreover, she adds that for the short-story of the modern type, simplicity, unity, brevity, and suggestive force are the qualities most to be desired; and the complex and interwoven plot is therefore to be shunned. (Albright, 1908, 52) Modernist writers intended to break from traditional methods of literature. One of the innovative techniques the writers pioneered was a limited plot. According to Childs, Mansfield wished to improve upon the technique of a plotless story. In her short stories, in terms of incident and action, almost nothing happens (2000, 141). Claire Tomalin expresses the same view concerning the plot, there is no plot to speak of, but a series of impressionistic scenes, and a merging into things (1988, 200). For example in A Dill Pickle, Vera stands in a café and sees her former boyfriend. The boyfriend recognises her and invites her to sit and have coffee with him. He informs Vera about his journeys, that they dreamed of together, and which he undertook after they split up. Vera goes back, in her memories, to the period when they were dating. Vera s life, to which she returns in flashbacks, is described in the course of one day when she is sitting in a café. American novelist Abraham Cahan remarks on Chekhov s short stories, that they are absolutely storyless that there is not enough even to fill a nutshell, and Leonard Woolf adds that Chekhov had the ability to show exactly what a little piece of life is like. (May, 2002, 52) For example, the short story A Happy Man is a 22

30 description of the events of the main character, Ivan Alexyevich. Ivan gets onto a train to Petesburg; he looks for his compartment; he meets his friend, Pyotr Petrovich; he tells him that he is married; he is informed that he has got onto the wrong train; fellow passengers collect money to help him pay for the ticket. Similarly, Virginia Woolf s Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown, published in 1924, can be considered a plotless story. Margaret Drabble adds that Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown was one of Woolf s important statements of modernism (2000, 1114), the whole life of the main character, Mrs. Brown, is described in the course of one day. The action is rather limited because Woolf concentrated on Mrs. Brown s body language, clothes, and turn of phrase (Hilský, 1995, 147). Another short story, The Mark on the Wall, can be considered plotless, too. The central subject of the story is a snail. The story s narrator-character sits and regards an unidentifiable mark. She engages in wild speculations and wonders what the little mark on the wall can possibly be. All of her deductions prove wrong because the mark on the wall is just a snail. The open-ending leaves things unsaid and this particular feature is discussed in chapter 9. Furthermore, in terms of plot, James Joyce s short story Araby, can also be considered plotless. The plot described in section 6.1, on first person narrative, is rather limited. Although the reader learns about the character, his family and daily activities from the introduction, the narrator s main aim is to tell about his love for his friend s sister. The plot does not represent a sequence of events from the main character s life but the events are only fragments from his life. Similarly, his short story After Race only presents the reader with sketches of a race and the situation in the short period afterwards. In the introductory paragraph the reader is slightly confused, because it is not clear whether they are still racing, or whether they are only talking about their memories of the race. In summation, the plot was not of great importance to modernist writers. As complex plot was avoided, writers focalised on fragments from the lives of main characters. Another fact to note is that modernist writers compress the whole life of a character into a short period of time, for instance one day or one afternoon. 23

31 8. MEDIAS-RES One of the most prominent modernist techniques used in all of Mansfield s short stories is in media-res. Katherine Mansfield broke the traditional way of beginning a story by not providing the background information about where the story takes place, the introduction and description of the main characters. The technique of in medias res can also be found in Chekhov s and Woolf s short stories. Mansfield uses a wide range of indicators to make the reader aware of the fact that there is something missing and that the reader will not be given any clues as to what happened previously. It is entirely up to the reader to imagine what has happened. For example, in the book of short stories called in a German Pension, in seven out of the thirteen stories ( A Blaze, The Modern Soul, The Sisters of the Baroness, and so forth), the narrator plunges immediately into the dialogue. Furthermore, opening with a conjunction is a widely used feature in Mansfield s short stories: Although it was so (Mansfield, 2006, 268), Although Bertha Young was thirty (Mansfield, 2006, 69), and is also used in A Dill Pickle, Honeymoon, and others. In others, she also uses temporal constructions implying a prior knowledge of the event being described: Eight o clock in the morning. (Mansfield, 2006, 93), And after all, the weather was ideal. (Mansfield, 2000, 197), After lunch Milly (Mansfield, 2006, 364), The week after was one of the busiest weeks of their lives (Mansfield, 2006, 211); concessive and conditional clauses: Whether he had forgotten what it felt like, or (Mansfield, 2006, 503), If there was one thing (Mansfield, 2006, 112); proper nouns: Mrs Carsfield and her mother sat (Mansfield, 2006, 453), Millie stood leaning (Mansfield, 2006, 482) or the narrator cuts straight through to the action without any indication that something has happened previously: There is a very unctuous and (Mansfield, 2006, 492) or It is raining. (Mansfield, 2006, 534). Chekhov, as mentioned previously, a great Russian modernist writer with whom Mansfield s short stories are closely associated, also uses the technique of in medias res. He mainly used prepositions such as at, in, between and so on at the beginning of his short stories. For example, Before setting off for his examination in Greek (Chekhov, A Classical Student ), During my stay in (Chekhov, Agafya ). Also proper nouns: Groholsky embraced Liza, kept kissing her. (Chekhov, A Living 24

32 Chattel ); temporal clauses: Soon after two o clock one night (Chekhov, A Story Without an End ); the narrator plunges straight to the action: It was approaching nightfall. (Chekhov, The Witch ) or Morning. (Chekhov, At the Barber s ). Similarly the technique of in medias-res also appears in the short stories Kew Gardens and The Mark on the Wall written by Virginia Woolf. The narrator rushes straight into the story: Perhaps it was the middle of January in the present year that I first looked up and saw the mark on the wall. (Woolf, The Mark on the Wall ) or From the oval-shaped flower-bed there rose perhaps a hundred stalks spreading into heart-shaped or tongue-shaped leaves (Woolf, Kew Gardens ) However, James Joyce s story The Boarding House (from Dubliners) is opened with a proper noun and is followed by a description of the main character, Mrs Mooney, and her past. 25

33 9. OPEN ENDING In the view of Peter Childs, one of Mansfield s most typical techniques, closely associated with in medias res, is to leave things unsaid. He adds that D.H. Lawrence, a great modernist author writing in the same period as Katherine Mansfield, did not share her desire for leaving an open ending (2000, 143). The open ending is very powerful in her short stories. For example, the short story Miss Brill ends in the following way: But today she passed the baker s by, climbed the stairs, went into the little dark room her room like a cupboard and sat down on the red eiderdown. She sat there for a long time. The box that the fur came out of was on the bed. She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying. (Mansfield, 2006, 272) The reader becomes connected with the main character and feels empathy with Miss Brill s struggle to fight her desire to wear her fur. The final sentence of the story seems ambiguous and it is the reader who is responsible for providing the end. The reader can explain this in two different ways because Mansfield does not mention exactly what is crying. One point of view is that the fur itself is crying because Miss Brill does not want to wear it anymore. So, she opens the box and takes her fur out again and wears it as usual. A second possible explanation may be that Miss Brill s soul or heart is crying because she was hurt by the young couple she met at the park and who criticised her silly fur. The same technique is used by A.P. Chekhov. His short stories also have openendings to create the reader s involvement in the story. For example the ending of the short story A Living Chattel is the following: I pressed Groholsky s hand, and got into the train. He bowed towards the carriage, and went to the water-barrel I suppose he was thirsty! (Chekhov, A Living Chattel ) As in Mansfield s stories, the reader becomes involved in the tale, and is supposed to imagine and create their own ending to the story. For instance, Groholsky lives with Liza and her husband. He still loves her, but at the same time suffers from her indifference towards his feelings. The reader can only imagine what Chekhov intended for Groholsky. He may get over his love and leave them, or he could kill Bugrov, Liza s husband. As it has been mentioned 26

34 previously, Mansfield and Chekhov stressed the importance of their reader s involvement by leaving things unsaid. Furthermore, this technique is also visible from the short stories collected in Dubliners. For example, the short story Araby ends in the following manner, Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger. (Joyce, 1977, 36) Joyce s open-endings are also ambiguous and leave the reader wondering what the main character is thinking of, how they are going to solve their problems and so on. Again, the stress is on the reader s perception and imagination. Virginia Woolf s The Mark on the Wall is the last short story discussed in relation to the technique of open-ending. The story ends ambiguously, in that the mark in question may have been a snail. The reader does not know whether this is fact, as the information has been taken second hand from another character introduced at the end of the story, but is led to believe this from the final sentence, Ah, the mark on the wall! It was a snail. (Woolf, The Mark on the Wall ) However, what is left unsaid is whether the snail was on the wall at a previous time and is no longer there, or that it is still on the wall at the time of telling. The reader does not know what happens to the snail. Moreover, the final statement may be one of disappointment, of no consequence, relief, or even irony. 27

35 10. COLOUR IMAGES At the end of the nineteenth century a new language was developing in the same way that paint was being laid on canvas. Mansfield, in her letters, expressed her passion for impressionist painting: Wasn t that Van Gogh shown at the Goupil ten years ago? Yellow flowers brimming with sun in a pot? I wonder if it s the same. That picture seemed to reveal something that I hadn t realised before I saw it. It lived with me afterwards. It still does that and another of a sea captain in a flat cap. They taught me something about writing, which was queer a kind of freedom or rather, a shaking free. When one has been working for a long stretch one begins to narrow one vision a bit, to fine things down too much. And its only when something else breaks through, a picture, or something seen out of doors that one realises it. (CL4, p. 333, 5 December 1921 in Kimber, ) Mansfield transfers methods typical of impressionist paintings such as brushstroke, into her own writings. The colour images spread through her entire works and they have a merely descriptive function, and create vivacious settings for the action of the story. For example, she uses purple, green, mild yellows, greys, blues, and variations of light and shadow throughout her work for tonal, impressive and visual effect. Mansfield s use of subdued colours links her to the methods of impressionism in painting. Her work was compared (for example by Kimber, Kathleen Wheeler and so on) with the impressionist painter Monet because they both limited the subject matter in their works to a minimum, and Monet s series of paintings on themes such as haystacks, water-lilies and so on resembles the floral themes and symbols of Mansfield s short stories (Gunsteren, 2000, 15). Julia Van Gunsteren goes even further and divides colour images connected to Mansfield s stories into two categories. The first category contains colours related to the visual experience of the perceiving character(s) and is closely related to Mansfield s narrative technique of presenting data drawn from the sensations of her characters. The second category includes colours which express in colour the atmospheric mood or the mental state of the character(s). (2000, ) Although the short story Bank Holiday is only a couple of pages long, it is pervaded with colours from the beginning to the end. The story begins with a colourful description of a man and it seems as if the reader was looking at an impressionist painting, A stout man with a pink face wears dingy white flannel trousers, a blue coat 28

36 with a pink handkerchief showing, and a straw hat much too small for him, perched at the back of his head. (Mansfield, 2006, 295) It seems that Mansfield is concentrating on the colour of the man s face in order to illustrate his emotions, such as happiness, anger, enthusiasm and so on, and also to make the reader focus on these feelings. What is of interest is that she used the same colour for both the man s face and his handkerchief. Ruth Parkin-Gounelas expressed the view that the colour pink is part of a system whereby gender polarization is encoded from the cradle. (496) In other words, Mansfield wanted to break the impression that the colour pink is only associated with women. Pink is the colour which appears most frequently in her works, describing both women and men or inanimate objects such as pink spider (Mansfield, 2006, 295). Similarly, the view that the passage below resembles paintings by Manet or Renoir is shared by Kimber (133). As has been mentioned (p. 28), it seems as if we are looking at a painting by one of these impressionist painters. Mansfield concentrates on describing a still-picture and focuses on the mood of the characters, the atmosphere and the way the reader perceives the characters. Old fat women in velvet bodices old dusty pin-cushions lean old hags like worn umbrellas with a quivering bonnet on top; young women, in muslims, with hats that might have grown on hedges, and high pointed shoes; men in khaki, sailors, shabby clerks, young Jews in fine cloth suits with padded shoulders and wide trousers, hospital boys in blue the sun discovers them the loud, bold music holds them together in one big know for a moment. (Mansfield, 2006, 295) The following colourful description, Lovely, streaming feathers, emerald green, scarlet, bright blue, canary yellow. (Mansfield, 2006, 296), evokes the impression that Mansfield is describing a parrot or different exotic bird because of the colour scheme she uses. It elicits in the reader very positive emotions and associations. She may also be describing a scarf or other such objects. As the text progresses, the reader learns that Mansfield is describing feathers that females wear in their hats as a decoration, and in a way women may represent beautiful birds. Looking closely at the colours used in the description above, the impressionist painter Monet appears to have used similar colours in his paintings: emeralds, blues, lemon yellows, reds, greens, violets and different tones, shades of these colours, such as chrome and cadmium yellows, vermilion, cobalt violet, viridian green, bright greens and so on (Pioch). It seems that Mansfield was inspired by paintings at impressionist exhibitions organised by Roger Fry (Kimber, 132). These 29

37 colours, together with silvers and golds, are used by the author in all her stories. In each one, colours have their roles; they set the tone, mood and atmosphere. Other examples of colour images occur in the story Bank Holiday : [ ] lemons like blunted fishes blob in the yellow water. [ ] Her face, a treasure of delicate carving, is tied in a green-and-gold scarf. [ ] father brings her out a glass of dark, brownish stuff (Mansfield, 2006, ). If the categorisation of colour proposed by Gunsteren is taken into account, the above examples may be included in both categories. Mansfield uses the colour images, in this particular story, to depict reality. Mansfield not only focuses on the perception of the characters, symbols, and surroundings but also on the presentation of mood and atmosphere. When the colour images are looked at even closer, what season it is could be deduced from the colour scheme she uses. The story may take place in summer because it is impossible to buy such colourful roses in any other season in England. The vivid colours evoke in the reader very positive emotions and they can imagine themselves there at that time of the year. Looking at Renoir s paintings Strawberries and Fruits from the Midi (appendix 2) some common features of these two paintings and Mansfield s detailed description of a bowl of fruit in the story Bliss can be noticed: Mary brought in the fruit on a tray and with it a glass bowl, and a blue dish, very lovely, with a strange sheen on it as though it had been dipped in milk [ ] When she had finished with them and had made two pyramids of these bright round shapes, she stood away from the table to get the effect and it really was most curious. For the dark table seemed to melt into the dusky light and the glass dish and the blue bowl to float in the air. (Mansfield, 2006, 70) In Mansfield s story and Renoir s paintings, the bowl of fruit represents a still picture. The aim was not only to portray the fruit on the table but also to convey a certain momentous atmosphere. Furthermore, Angela Smith stresses a connection to another great impressionist painter Cézanne, whose painting Apples and Oranges (appendix 3) combines modernity and sumptuous beauty, and may have been the inspiration for Katherine Mansfield. Still-life passages in the fiction of Mansfield and of Woolf are similarly charged, conveying both an image of the fruit and the mood of the perceiver [ ] These fruits are the equivalent of Cézanne s apples and oranges that are about to topple. (Kimber, 133) 30

38 It seems as if Katherine Mansfield has taken a paint brush and started to paint a bowl of fruit, but the only difference between her and impressionist painters is that she has used words to bring her vision to perfection. Mansfield, as well as Renoir, had a great eye for detail. The colour images, the bowl of fruits and the arrangement on the table express the atmosphere and reflects Bertha Young s mood: When she had finished with them and had made two pyramids of these bright round shapes, she stood away from the table to get the effect and it really was most curious. For the dark table seemed to melt into the dusky light and the glass dish and the blue bowl to float in the air. This, of course in her present mood, was so incredibly beautiful (Mansfield, 2006, 70) One of the impressionist devices was to set a figure or an object against a blurred background and Mansfield has used the same technique. The positive, bright and light colours represent the atmosphere and the positive mood of Bertha, but the table on which she has arranged the fruit is black. The black table is being used only for contrast reasons in order to highlight the importance of the content on the table, or it may forewarn that something bad is likely to occur in Bertha s life. However, as mentioned on the official website of museum Orsay, Manet used the blacks together with greys which were usually banned from the impressionist palette. [ ] Impressionist painters introduced the freshness of colour; they looked for natural and unconventional attitude. (On the Beach) The painterly technique Mansfield uses in her stories connects her closely with impressionist painting. Besides Mansfield, other authors, for instance Virginia Woolf and A.P. Chekhov, also incorporate colour images in their works. According to Roger Fry, colour images, in the prose of Virginia Woolf, have a sensuous quality and psychological meaning. One of the best examples might be the novel The Waves. In the short lyrical interludes, Woolf describes the changes in the waves from dawn to dusk. These interludes become impressionist pictures and resemble Monet s paintings of water lilies. The interludes make an impression, as if Woolf was standing at the beach and instead of a paint brush she held a pen and tried the impossible: she wanted to describe the changes caused by wind, sun and so on using words. Different people see colours in a different way. Colour images in The Waves, as well as in Mrs Dalloway, are used by Virginia Woolf to uncover the psyche of her characters, because each person is unique and sees the colours in different way. (Hilský, 1995, 177) 31

39 Woolf s short story Kew Gardens is saturated with colours all the way through. The reader is presented with the descriptions of flowers, butterflies, dragonflies and other visitors to Kew Gardens. As mentioned above, for The Waves, Fry expresses his belief that Woolf must have been present at the sea shore. The same could be said of her presence here. She presents the reader with a vivid and actual description. The colours evoke positive impressions in Woolf, and it is probable that she wants the readers to experience the same positive emotions. For me, a kiss. Imagine six little girls sitting before their easels twenty years ago, down by the side of a lake, painting the water-lilies, the first red water-lilies I d ever seen. (Woolf, Kew Gardens ) From the passage above, a close association with Claude Monet is possible. There are a large number of paintings, among his most famous works, where water lilies are the central theme. The paintings and Woolf s short story represent vivid impressions and the reader can look deeper and think profoundly about the themes, atmosphere, mood, and psyche of main characters and the author itself. Woolf as well as Mansfield uses colour scheme similar to the palette of Monet and other impressionist writers, [...] red or blue or yellow petals [ ] from the red, blue or yellow gloom [ ] the red, blue and yellow light [ ] (Woolf, Kew Garden ) 32

40 11. SYMBOLS As indicated in chapter 4, Julia Van Gunsteren strongly expressed her view that Katherine Mansfield belongs, first and foremost, to the impressionist movement. She supports her view: Symbols generally point outside a work to meanings established by supernatural or historical concepts. It is argued here that Mansfield s figures may best be called imagistic correlatives because they express internal meanings drawn from the minds of the characters, which may be individual, may have associational meanings, and may pertain to one fragmentary experience only. (2000, 172) Clare Hanson argues, and points out, that Mansfield is a symbolist writer and that she was influenced by French Symbolism and the Decadent movement. Kaplan concurs with the importance of symbolism in Mansfield s stories (Kimber, 134). For the purpose of this paper the word symbols is used. In Mansfield s short stories, symbols play a fairly important role, and they occur everywhere. Frequently used symbols in Mansfield s stories are flowers and trees (for example Prelude, The Garden Party, Bliss, The Man Without a Temperament ), animals ( The Fly, The Canary, Prelude ), and objects ( The Luft Bad, Miss Brill ). Vincent O Sullivan points out that Oscar Wilde influenced Mansfield s use of floral symbols (Kimber, 136). For example, the central symbol of The Man Without a Temperament and Prelude is Aloe. Floral symbols, for instance lilies, roses and daisies, appear throughout the short story The Garden Party. A pear tree is the central symbol of the short story Bliss. The pear tree represents a symbol of her own life, a healthy and blooming fruit tree, inert within the walled garden and, thus, always at hand to be contemplated and admired. (D Arcy) The view of D Arcy that the pear tree represents a symbol of her life is demonstrated by Bertha s description of the tree: The windows of the drawing-room opened on to a balcony overlooking the garden. At the far end, against the wall, there was a tall, slender pear tree in fullest, richest bloom; it stood perfect, as though becalmed against the jade-green sky. Bertha couldn t help feeling, even from this distance, that it had not a single bud or a faded petal. Down below, in the garden beds, the red and yellow tulips, heavy with flowers, seemed to lean upon the dusk. A grey cat, dragging its belly, crept across the lawn, and a black one, its shadow, trailed after. The sight of them, so intent and so quick, gave Bertha a curious shiver. (Mansfield, 2006, 72) 33

41 and in fragment, And she seemed to see on her eyelids the lovely pear tree with its wide open blossoms as a symbol of her own life. (Mansfield, 2006, 73) Bertha has everything. She is young and beautiful; she has a loving husband, a baby, and a splendid house. Everything changes when Bertha invites Miss Fulton to see her pear tree. And the two women stood side by side looking at the slender, flowering tree. (Mansfield, 2006, 77) Even though we do not know what is going on in their minds, the assumption is that Bertha wants Miss Fulton to experience the same sensations she feels when she is looking at the tree. Bertha is struck by her husband s confession of admiration for Miss Fulton. Before Miss Fulton leaves, she whispers to her the word pear tree. Although Bertha cannot make out what she meant because the tree looks the same, as if nothing has happened, her life is likely to change due to her husband s feelings for another woman. Miss Fulton held her hand a moment longer. Your lovely pear tree! she murmured. And then she was gone, with Eddie following, like the black cat following the grey cat. I ll shut up shop, said Harry, extravagantly cool and collected. Your lovely pear tree pear tree pear tree! Bertha simply ran over to the long windows. Oh, what is going to happen now? she cried. But the pear tree was as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as still. (Mansfield, 2006, 80) In the short story The Luft Bad another interesting example of the use of symbols can be found. Although the word umbrellas is mentioned only twice throughout the story, at the very beginning and at the end, it becomes the central symbol of this particular story. Umbrellas signal both ridiculousness and protection. On the one hand, the character-narrator thinks it ridiculous to use an umbrella as a hiding place against the sun, other bathers, and men. On the other hand, following the conversation with the Vegetable Lady, who looks down on her (the character-narrator) because she thinks she is either American or English, the umbrella represents a knight in shining armour for the bathers. From these examples, symbols do not give the stories extra colour (this impression could be derived from the colourful description of flowers in The Garden Party ) but that they reflect the main characters, their feelings, mood and the atmosphere. 34

42 12. GRAMMATICAL DEVICES As mentioned in chapter 5.3, Mansfield uses, in addition to open endings, in medias rés, plotlessness and symbols, a number of grammatical devices to develop her creativity and make a strong impact on the reader. The short stories An Indiscreet Journey, Je Ne Parle Pas Français, Two Tuppenny Ones, Please, Late at Night, The Black Cup are used to pinpoint the most frequent grammatical devices used by Katherine Mansfield and compared with the short stories of Joyce, Chekhov and Woolf Brackets The first grammatical device, under discussion, is brackets. The short story An Indiscreet Journey is narrated in the first person and Mansfield uses brackets, in a very interesting way, to set a piece of a text apart from the narration in order to distinguish between the story told and the inner thoughts of the character-narrator, (That Burberry was very significant. It did not belong to me. I had borrowed it from a friend. My eye lighted upon it hanging disguise an old Burberry.) (Mansfield, 2006, 520) In the short story Je Ne Parle Pas Français Mansfield s use of brackets is very similar to the one in An Indiscreet Journey. On the one hand, the information the reader obtains in brackets represent the inner thoughts of the main character, Never making one of those perfectly insignificant remarks which amaze you so coming fro a waiter (as though the poor wretch were a sort of cross between a coffee-pot and a wine bottle and not expected to hold so much as a drop of anything else). (Mansfield, 2006, 45) but on the other hand, they most likely represent Mansfield s notes to the reader as is seen in the following passage: She sat down in a chair with lace tabs on the arms; he leaned against the bed, and I established myself on a straight-backed chair, crossed my legs and brushed some imaginary dust off the knees of my trousers. (The Parisian at his ease.) (Mansfield, 2006, 61) The short stories Late at Night, The Black Cup or Two Tuppenny Ones, Please resemble plays in the way Mansfield uses the brackets. The information in the brackets serves as a guideline for the reader to visualise characters activities, their manner of speech and so on, Virginia (laying the letter down): I don t like this letter at all or if it s just his way. (Reads.) (Mansfield, 2006, 537); She (in a low, desperate 35

43 voice). Yes, on Thursday evening. Goodbye, then. (Mansfield, 2006, 544); Conductor (savagely) (Mansfield, 2006, 541). Although James Joyce and A. P. Chekhov also use brackets, it must be pointed out that brackets are a rare feature in the short stories of the authors in question. For instance, in the story After the Race, the brackets are used at the beginning of the story and their main function is to provide additional information about the character. Ségouin was in good humour because he hand unexpectedly received some orders in advance (he was about to start a motor establishment in Paris) and Riviére was in good humour because he was to be appointed manager of the establishment; these two young men (who were cousins) were also in good humour because of the success of the French cars. (Joyce, 1977, 44-45) In the Chekhov s short story A Living Chattel brackets are also used to give supplementary information about the character, I saw you yesterday at the Assembly Hall, muttered Bugrov (that was the husband s name). (Chekhov, A Living Chattel ) or they are to illustrate that there is a pause in the discourse, She is a great chatterbox. (Pause.) She is never tired of talking. (Chekhov, A Living Chattel ) Mansfield uses brackets to communicate information on the characters itself, their behaviour and their inner thoughts. Furthermore, Joyce and Chekhov use brackets to provide additional information about the characters and characterise various disruptions in discourse Unfinished sentences Unfinished sentences, which are very closely related to ellipsis, can be found in Mansfield s, as well as, Chekhov s, Joyce s and Woolf s short stories. In general, all these authors use three dots to signal unfinished sentences. Moreover, Mansfield and Joyce also use the dash. The main purpose of unfinished sentences is to leave things unsaid. For instance, The train slowed down, stopped (Mansfield, 2006, 522); I hadn t a watch. Oh, well later. (Mansfield, 2006, 521); I heard him once, Mr Kernan continued. I forget the subject of his discourse now. Crofton and I were in the back of the pit, you know the -. (Joyce, 1977, 187) The example below comes from the short story Two Tuppenny Ones, Please. In this particular story, Mansfield uses unfinished sentences in a very unique way, 36

44 which the reader is not likely to find in any of her other stories. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Two Tuppenny Ones, Please might have been intended to be a play. The story represents direct discourse between the two main characters, a lady and a friend. The reader is provided only with the lady s lines and the lines of her friend are intentionally missing. The intention is for the reader to provide the missing thoughts. Lady. How much is it? Tuppence, isn t it? Two tuppenny ones, please. Don t bother I ve got some coppers, somewhere or other. Friend.? Lady. No, it s all right. I ve got some if only I can find them. Conductor. Parse your fares, please. Friend.? (Mansfield, 2006,) Unfinished sentences, as in Katherine Mansfield s short stories, were one of the devices used by modernist writers to depict slice-of-life of the main characters, and suppress words necessary to the full form of a construction, which made the reader supply the missing thoughts of the characters Rhetorical Questions, Exclamations Other typical features used by Katherine Mansfield are rhetorical questions and exclamations. The short stories Miss Brill, A Dill Pickle will be used to demonstrate this technique. Exclamations are mainly used in FID to express the character s inner thoughts, disbelief, doubt and surprise. As mentioned in chapter 6.2, FID is not spoken, but is central for the understanding of the mental state of the character. In A Dill Pickle, Vera expresses her surprise that her friend did not recognise her: Incredible! He didn t know her! (Mansfield, 2006, 132) Similarly, in Miss Brill, exclamation is also used in main character FID and expresses doubt or worry of Miss Brill: Dear little thing! (Mansfield, 2006, 268) Rhetorical questions are also chiefly used in FID to express doubt. In Miss Brill : What would she do? What was going to happen now? (Mansfield, 2006, 270) or in A Dill Pickle : Was it too late? Could it be too late? (Mansfield, 2006, 137) From the examples above the reader is aware of the character s mental process. 37

45 13. CONCLUSION The hypothesis that Katherine Mansfield belongs to the writers of modernism in Britain has been proved based upon the analysis of the innovative and experimental techniques Mansfield uses in her short stories, and their comparison with other modernist short story writers. Katherine Mansfield was a true modernist even though some critics may disagree, mainly Chekhov, Joyce and Woolf. Katherine Mansfield was a true modernist even though some critics may disagree. Mansfield s narrative methods are more complicated than it seems initially. Her stories are narrated either in the first or third person. Free indirect discourse (FID) has been discussed as one of the subtypes of third person narrative. The main purpose of FID in Mansfield s short stories is to describe the inner and deepest thoughts, mental state, and doubts of her main characters. It is noted that a considerable number of her short stories are written in the first person narrative. Another point of note is that the majority of Mansfield s short stories, narrated in the first person, are told by an anonymous narrator (for example, The Canary, The Luft Bad, The Baron ). As well as other representatives of modernist writing, Mansfield rejects the rules which were regarded as necessary to produce good works such as plot, chronology, description, and so on. The plotlessness is typical for modernist literature and art. Mansfield depicts slice-of-life, in other words, fragments or sketches out of the life of her characters; she never describes the sequence of events of the life of the characters. Closely associated with this method is in medias-res and open-endings. The main aim of these techniques is to neglect the unnecessary information either concerning the character s past or the conclusion of the story. The focus is on the reader, who is required to produce, to imagine this missing information or with the extra-diegetic narrator (another subtype of third person narrative) whose main purpose is to tell the story, be present at the location, and inform the reader about the past, present and future of the character. Furthermore, time, which is not discussed in this paper, is also very important. Mansfield s stories usually take place during a short period of time even though it may seem to happen over several years. Mansfield is believed to be a representative of impressionism (a subset movement of the collective term modernism) in literature. The use of colour images in 38

46 her stories supports this claim. Mansfield s short stories are very colourful and some of the descriptions or sketches, together with the colour scheme that she uses, resemble the paintings of impressionistic painters Renoir, Monet and Cézanne. The colour images describe the atmosphere, mood and mental state of her characters. Mansfield s short stories are also fairly symbolic. The most frequent symbols which appear in her short stories are flowers, trees, animals and objects. The final innovative methods discussed in relation to Mansfield s short stories are brackets, unfinished sentences, exclamations and rhetorical questions. In this analysis, the latter two are shown to be very closely associated with the technique of FID. Exclamations and rhetorical questions are used to express surprise, doubt and the inner thoughts of the characters. Brackets are chiefly used by Mansfield to express the inner thoughts of the character and set them apart from the narration. In this case, brackets serve as a guideline for the readers and indicate the manner of speaking, behaviour. Finally, unfinished sentences are closely related to the elision of words in the construction, and the main focus is again place with the reader, who is required to supply missing thoughts. A summary of the information provided in this dissertation, shows a comparative analysis of Mansfield s short stories with Chekhov s, Joyce s and Woolf s short stories. The following techniques are used by all of the aforementioned authors: plotlessness, in medias-res, open-endings, and the first and third person narrative. Although Chekhov, Joyce and Woolf use third person narrative, one cannot find the technique of FID in the short stories which are used in this dissertation. Out of all four short story writers only Katherine Mansfield uses this technique. However, James Joyce uses a similar method in order to express the inner reality of his characters. Such a technique is the stream-of-consciousness, which is a subtype of the first person narrative and the interior monologue. Colour images and floral symbols are seen in Virginia Woolf s Kew Garden and The Waves, Katherine Mansfield s works and impressionist paintings. Unfinished sentences and ellipsis of essential information can be found in Chekhov s, Joyce s and Woolf s short stories. Considering these authors, brackets, rhetorical questions and exclamation marks are used by Mansfield as a device within the technique of FID. Besides Woolf, all of the authors in question used brackets 39

47 to express additional information about their characters (for example their behaviour, manner of speaking or setting). In summation, the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century was a period of significant changes in lifestyle, art and literature. The authors used a number of innovative and experimental techniques, some of which were discussed in this dissertation, to depict the reality. 40

48 14. RESUMÉ Katherine Mansfield patří k předním představitelům krátké modernistické povídky. I když ji součastní kritici nepovažují za představitelku modernismu, ve své době byla uznávanou představitelkou tohoto literárního žánru. Katherine Mansfield pocházela z Nového Zélandu, ale většinu svého života prožila v Evropě (Anglii, Švýcarsku, Německu a tak dále). Mansfield se věnovala psaní krátkých povídek již od dětských let. Její prvotiny vyšly ve školním časopise a poté co se vrátila do Anglie ve významných časopisech jako byly New Age, Rhythm nebo Blue Review. Stala se členkou literární skupiny Bloomsbury Group, která se scházela v domě její přítelkyně Virginie Woolfové. Její osobní i profesní život byl ovlivněn nejen sňatkem s literárním kritikem Johnem Middletonem Murrym, ale také její sexuální orientací (měla poměr se dvěmi ženami), smrtí jejího bratra, potratem, tuberkulózou, které v nepříliš pokročilém věku podlehla. Katherine Mansfield se zabývala rovněž psaním poezie, ale čtenáři ji znají především jako autorku krátkých povídek. I když za první představitele krátké povídky jsou považování Giovanni Boccaccio a Geoffrey Chaucer (jejichž knihy Dekameron a Canterburské povídky obsahují individuální krátké povídky), je důležité zdůraznit, že krátká povídka jako literární žánr vznikla již mnohem dříve, a to v období lidových vyprávění, mýtů, krátkých příběhů (s těmito žánry byla krátká povídka původně srovnávána). Krátká povídka se vyvíjela a měnila stejně rychlým tempem jakým se vyvíjel a měnil životní styl v Anglii. V období Anglo-saském krátkou povídku ovlivnilo křesťanství. V období středověku, francouzská literatura s sebou přivedla nové žánry krátké povídky: fabliau a exempla. Bohužel krátká povídka nepatřila po mnoho stoletích k oblíbeným literárním žánrům. Teprve až v šestnáctém století, italská renesance představila nový typ krátké povídky, tzv. novelu. V osmnáctém století krátké povídky vycházely ve dvou významných anglických literárních časopisech The Tatler a The Spectator. V této době, také vychází krátké povídky významného anglického romanopisce, Daniela Defoe. Koncem osmnáctého století Horace Walpole vydal Zámek Otranto, který byl považován za základní kámen krátké povídky v devatenáctém století. V této době vzniká v Americe moderní krátká povídka, jež byla populární až do počátku dvacátého století. A. P. Čechov, významný představitel ruské 41

49 krátké povídky, svými inovativními a experimentálními technikami ovlivnil mnoho autorů jako byli například James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, Ernest Hemingway, Katherine Anne Porter a další. Tímto se dostáváme k období modernismu jak v literatuře, tak v myšlení lidí a kulturním vývoji. Období konce devatenáctého a počátku dvacátého století je označováno jako období modernismu. Většina odborníků se shoduje, že modernismu pravděpodobně začal kolem roku 1890 a skončil ve třicátých letech dvacátého století. Modernistické hnutí bylo reakcí na změny, ke kterým došlo na konci devatenáctého a na počátku dvacátého století, jako například industrializace, vývoj technologií, migrace obyvatel z vesnic do měst, nové ideály, první světová válka a počátky druhé světové války. Je nutno podotknout, že modernismus byl kolektivní název pro několik literárních směrů: impresionismus, post-impresionismus, surrealismus, dadaismus, vorticismus, symbolismus, imagismus, kubismus a futurismus, která se objevují v tomto období. Modernismus se projevil nejen ve změnách životního stylu obyvatel, ale zasáhl i všechny formy umění, jako byla literatura, výtvarné umění či hudba. Modernismus přinesl nové, experimentální metody, které zobrazovaly, na rozdíl od realismu, který zobrazoval život a skutečnosti realisticky, stejné skutečnosti jiným způsobem. Na rozdíl od tradičních realistických povídek, děj v modernistické próze není chronologicky uspořádán. Dalším významným činitelem jsou posuny v čase, které jsou vyjádřeny vzpomínkami a náhlými změnami. Jelikož autoři přecházejí z jednoho stupně vyprávěn k druhému bez varování, čtenáři často netuší, že jsou svědky jiného příběhu. Tohoto bylo dosaženo pomocí vnitřního monologu postav a proudem vědomí. Důraz byl též kladen na hrdinovo vědomí a vnímání reality. Pro modernistická díla jsou typické náhlé začátky a vyvrcholení příběhu. Touto technikou bylo dosaženo toho, že z příběhu byla vytlačená jakákoli zápletka, která podle kritiků tvořila hodnotnou povídku nebo román v předešlých stoletích. Spisovatelé se soustřeďovali na zobrazování obrazů ze života ne jako celku, ale zajímali se pouze o zlomky života svých hrdinů. V tomto ohledu byl důležitý vypravěč, který byl přítomen v místě konání příběhu, znal minulost, přítomnost a budoucnost hlavních hrdinů. Mansfield, stejně jako Joyce, Čechov a Woolf, používali techniku náhlých začátků a vyvrcholení. Řada jejích krátkých povídek začíná spojkou. Spojka měla naznačit, že danému textu něco předcházelo. Od čtenáře se očekávalo, že si domyslí 42

50 nebo alespoň bude přemýšlet o tom, co se mohlo stát. Čechov také ve svých krátkých povídkách dával přednost spojkám na začátku úvodního odstavce, protože stejně jako Mansfield chtěl čtenáře upozornit na to, že něco předcházelo. Dalším možným začátkem povídek bylo začít přímo příběhem, aniž by autor čtenáři naznačil co se stalo. Tuto techniku rovněž používá Čechov ve svých krátkých povídkách, Joyce ve své knize Dubliners, Virginia Woolf v povídkách Kew Gardens a Skvrna na zdi. Neméně důležitou metodou bylo vyvrcholení, které stejně jako začátek neposkytuje čtenáři mnoho informací o tom jak daný příběh skončí. Technika, která nejvíce spojovala Mansfield a Čechova bylo zobrazování nehybných obrazů ze života jednotlivých hrdinů. Tyto techniky byly typické pro většinu autorů konce devatenáctého a počátku dvacátého století a Katherine Mansfield nebyla výjimkou. Její díla rovněž obsahovala prvky impresionismu, protože jak již bylo zmíněno, její díla významně ovlivnil ruský impresionistický spisovatel A. P. Čechov. Impresionismus do popředí svého zájmu klade subjektivní vnímání, soustřeďuje se na samostatné příběhy ze života hlavních hrdinů. O hlavních hrdinech se dozvídáme z dialogů raději než z dlouhavých popisných statí a důraz byl také kladen na jejich mysl a vnímání. Velice zajímavý prvek impresionismu v literatuře je postavení vypravěče. Povídky Katherine Mansfield jsou vyprávěny v první nebo ve třetí osobě. Velice specifickým rysem pro její povídky je takzvaný free indirect discourse, který je možno přeložit jako polopřímá řeč. Polopřímá řeč představuje kompromis mezi přímou a nepřímou řečí. Na rozdíl od přímé řeči, tento typ vyprávění není oddělen od textu uvozovkami a je vyprávěn ve třetí osobě. Vypravěč je obvykle vtělený do jednoho nebo více hlavních hrdinů. Polopřímá řeč představuje vnitřní myšlenky hlavního hrdiny. Mansfield používá tento typ vypravěče k tomu, aby odhalila vnitřní myšlení, pochyby nebo vzpomínky hlavních hrdinů. Šlo jí především o to, aby odkryla psychiku člověka a jeho vnitřní pochody. Je nutno podotknout, že polopřímá řeč ve většině povídek představuje pouze kratší úseky vyprávěné hlavním hrdinou.tuto techniku nenalezneme ani u Čechova, Woolf nebo Joyce. Joyce používal podobnou techniku vnitřního monologu, kterou odkrýval vnitřní pochody hlavních hrdinů. Ale na rozdíl od polopřímé řeči Mansfield, je jeho typ vyprávění v první osobě. 43

51 Cílem impresionistické prózy bylo zachytit koherentní vyprávění složené z jednotlivých úlomků ze života hlavních hrdinů. Určité propojení lze též hledat s technikou, kterou používali malíři v období impresionismu. V některých povídkách, jako například Státní svátek, Zahradní slavnost nebo Blaho a tak dále, je možné zpozorovat určitou podobnost s impresionistickými malíři jako byl Cézanne, Renoir, nebo Monet. Barvy v krátkých povídkách mají popisnou funkci a vytváří živé prostředí pro jednání jednotlivých hrdinů. Mansfield ve svých dílech používá následující barvy fialovou, zelenou, světle žluté, šedé, modré, různé druhy světla a stínu pro vyjádření tonální, působivé a vizuální efekt. Barvy, které používá Mansfield ve svých povídkách, mohou být rozděleny do dvou skupin: a) podle toho zda popisují to co je viděno hlavním hrdinou nebo b) barvy popisující náladu, atmosféru a psychický stav hlavních hrdinů. Například Virginia Woolf ve svém románů Vlny využívá lyrických interludií k tomu, aby vyobrazila pomocí slov proměny moře od východu do západu slunce. A právě tyto interludia představují impresionistické obrazy a značná podobnost s Monetovými obrazy znázorňujícími lekníny je viditelná. Woolf rovněž používá barvy k odrytí psychiky svých hrdinů a dodává, že každý člověk je jedinečný a vidí realitu různým způsobem. Impresionismus nebyl jediným literárním směrem, který podle kritiků ovlivnil tvorbu Katherine Mansfield a někteří ji považují spíše za představitelku symbolismu. Nejčastěji používané symboly jsou květiny (lilie, sedmikrásky, růže a tak dále), stromy (hrušeň, aloe a tak dále) a předměty (deštníky). Hlavním cílem symbolů nebylo dodávat nadbytečnou barevnost, ale odrážet nejen city a nálady hlavních hrdinů, ale i atmosféru. Nedokončené věty (označovány třemi tečkami), rétorické otázky, zvolání, závorky patří k typickým znakům tvorby Katherine Mansfield. Nedokončené věty jsou velice úzce spojeny s vynecháváním slov, která jsou nezbytná pro pochopení dané věty. Důraz se opět kladen na čtenáře, který je nucen doplnit chybějící informace. Závorky představují velice zajímavý gramatický nástroj používaný touto spisovatelkou. Na jedné straně informace v závorkách představují vnitřní myšlenky, nápady hlavních hrdinů, a na straně druhé poznámky o tom, jakým tónem hrdinové mluví, jejich chovaní. Rétorické otázky a zvolání jsou často používány v rámci polopřímé řeči a jejím hlavním úkolem je odhalit pochyby hlavních hrdinů. Gramatické nástroje v menší míře používají také Joyce a Chekhov. 44

52 15. BIBLIOGRAPHY ALBRIGHT, Evelyn May. The Short Story: Its Principles and Structure. 2 nd edition (1 st edition 1907) London: Macmillan, p. DRABBLE, Margaret. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6 th edition (1 st edition 1932) Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. ISBN: GUNSTEREN, Julie Van. Katherine Mansfield and Literary Impressionism. 1 st edition. Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. ISBN: HILSKÝ, Martin. Modernisté. 1 st edition. Praha: Torst, p. JOYCE, James. Dubliners. 2 nd edition (1 st edition 1914) London: Grafton Books, p. ISBN: MANSFIELD, Katherine. Blaho a jiné povídky. Aloys Skoumal. 2 nd edition. Praha: Státní nakladatelství krásné literatury, hudby a umění, p. MANSFIELD, Katherine. The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield. Ware: Wordsworth, p. ISBN: MATZ, Jesse. Literary Impressionism and Modernist Aesthetics. 1 st edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). 278 p. ISBN: MAY, Charles E. The Short Story: the Reality of Artifice. 2 nd edition. New York: Routledge, p. ISBN: X. TOMALIN, Claire. Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life. 2 nd edition (1st edition 1987). London: Penguin Group, p. ISBN: ONLINE SOURCES: CANBY, Henry Seidel. The short Story in English. New York: Henry Holt, p. Available from WWW: < CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich. A Classical Student. In The Literature Network [online]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich. Agafya. In The Literature Network [online]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich. A Happy Man. In The Literature Network [online]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < 45

53 CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich. A Living Chattel. In The Literature Network [online]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich. A Story Without an End. In The Literature Network [online]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich. At the Barber s. In The Literature Network [online]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich. The Witch. In The Literature Network [online]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < D ARCY, Chantal Cornut-Gentille. Katherine Mansfield s Bliss : The Rare Fiddle as emblem of the political and sexual alienation of woman. In Paper on Language and Literature [on-line]. Summer 1999, vol. 35, no. 3. c2009 [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < > KIMBER, Geraldine Maria. Katherine Mansfield: The View from France [on-line]. c2007 [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < On the Beach [on-line]. c2006 [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < focuse/painting/commentaire_id/on-the-beach html?tx_commentaire_pi1[pidLi]=509&tx_commentaire_pi1[from]=841&cHash- 021a9ba0d9> PARKIN-GOUNELAS, Ruth. Katherine Mansfield s Piece of Pink Wool: Feminine signification in The Luft Bad. In Studies in Short Fiction [online]. Newberry: Fall 1990, vol 27, iss. 4, pp [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < QT=309&VName=PQD> PIOCH, Nicolas. Bathing at La Grenouillére [on-line]. c2002 [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < SOULE, George. Katherine Mansfield: An overview and notes on four stories [on-line]. c2006 [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < 46

54 WOOLF, Virginia. Kew Gardens. In The Literature Network [on-line]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < WOOLF, Virginia. The Mark on the Wall. In The Literature Network [on-line]. c [qtd ]. Available from WWW: < 47

55 16. APPENDICES Appendix 1 : FID in The Escape [ ] It was his fault, wholly and solely his fault, that they had missed the train. What if the idiotic hotel people had refused to produce the bill? Wasn t that simply because he hadn t impressed upon the waiter at lunch that they must have it by two o clock? Any other man would have sat there and refused to move until they handed it over. But no! His exquisite belief in human nature had allowed him to get up and expect one of those idiots to bring it to their room And then, when the voiture did arrive, while they were still (Oh, heavens!) waiting for change, why hadn t he seen to the arrangement of the boxes so that they could, at least, have started the moment the money had come? Had he expected her to go outside, to stand under the awning in the heat and point with her parasol? Very amusing picture of English domestic life. Even when the driver had been told how fast he had to drive he had paid no attention whatsoever just smile. Oh!, she groaned, if she d been a driver she couldn t have stopped smiling herself at the absurd, ridiculous way he was urged to hurry. And she sat back and imitated his voice: Allez vite, vite and begged the driver s pardon for troubling him And then the station unforgettable with the sight of the jaunty little train shuffling away and those hideous children waving from the windows. Oh, why am I made to bear these things? Why am I exposed to them? The glare, the flies, while they waited, and he and the stationmaster put their heads together over the time-table, trying to find this other train, which, of course, they wouldn t catch. The people who d gathered round, and the woman who d held up that baby with that awful, awful head Oh, to care as I care to feel as I feel, and never to be saved anything never to know for one moment what it was to to Her voice had changed. It was shaking now-crying now. She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its little maw a scented handkerchief. (Mansfield, 2006, 157) 48

56 Appendix 2: Renoir AUGUSTE RENOIR ( ) Fruits from the Midi, 1881 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago AUGUSTE RENOIR( ) Strawberries, 1905 Renoir Masterpiece Gallery [online] 49

57 Appendix 3: Cézanne PAUL CÉZANNE( ) Apples and Oranges, 1899 Musée d Orsay, Paris 50

58 Appendix 4: Monet CLAUDE MONET ( ) A Japanese foot-bridge over the water-lily pond in Giverny, 1899 National Gallery, London CLAUDE MONET ( ) Nymphéas, 1916 National museum of Western Art, Tokio 51